Icing Lev. Sudnitsin is staying in the net.

Justin Azevedo with a big open-ice hit on Milovzorov near the Lev blueline, which the crowd loves. Play continues.

Shulakov blasts one wide, then the puck comes to Vehanen and he covers.

Kulikov with a high wrister over the net.

Icing Lev. We'll see if Neftekhimik calls a timeout soon or thinks about pulling Sudnitsin for a 6th attacker. Not this stoppage apparently.

Repik going for another goal but he falls and crashes into the net, dislodging it. They're keeping the faceoff inside, so either he was pushed in or the save was made by Sudnitsin in the process.

Play now in the Lev zone with Neftekhimik back at full strength.

A clearing attempt hit Ridderwall in front, he had to react quickly to get a shot away but it wasn't much and hit Sudnitsin in the pad.

Shot from the point by Nemec, Sudnitsin stops it through a crowd and then the pile falls on top of him. Tough night for the Neftekhimik goalie, approaching 40 shots against. :50 left in the penalty.

Puck out of play in the Lev zone, faceoff inside.

Milovzorov with a wrister than hits Vehanen up high, play continues.

A scramble in Sudnitsin and he keeps it out, then Klepis with a blast and he stops that one too.

Clean faceoff win for Petr Vrana and a big slapper from the point by Ondrej Nemec, another save by Sudnitsin.

Repik with another chance, this one a one-timer on a pass from the corner but he hits Sudnitsin squarely and he holds on again.

Offside Neftekhimik.

Puck rolls to Sudnitsin, who scoops it up and holds on.

Puck deflected out of play in the Neftekhimik zone, faceoff inside.

Branko Radivojevic turns and fires, stick save Vehanen and the puck then ends up going into the Lev bench. Faceoff inside.

Neftekhimik shoot-in goes out of play, faceoff at centre ice.

Romanov with a big slapper from the point and a glove save by Petri Vehanen. Neftekhimik has come with more energy this 3rd period.

Calle Ridderwall with the wrister on the Lev rush, glove save Sudnitsin.

Nathan Oystrick fires the puck into the Lev bench--faceoff in the Lev zone.

Demagin with the wraparound attempt but can't beat Vehanen, then the puck's shot wide from the slot.

Ryan O'Byrne tries to shoot it in but gets under it too much and fires it out of play. Faceoff at centre ice.

Sergei Demargin crunches Topi Jaakola into the end boards--the Lev defenceman was holding his jaw and yapping at the referee as he skated away, implying he thought it was elbowing.

Petr Khokhryakov with a slapper that hits Vehanen in the chest, and he hangs onto it.

Puck out of play in the Lev zone. Faceoff inside.

Lev ices the puck right off the draw.

Another save Sudnitsin and he holds on this time for a faceoff.

Shot from the point by Gragnani hits Sudnitsin in the chest.

Lev back at full strength now, play in the Neftekhimik zone again.

Vehanen stops a long shoot-in, then Lev ices.

Shot attempt by Shulakov gets deflected out of play. Neftekhimik with only 1 shot on goal this period, compared to 11 for Lev.

Offside Neftekhimik. Lev again comes up empty on the power play, and one starts to get the feeling that all these missed chances might come back to bite them.

Slapper from Mikus hits a stick and goes wide.

Slap shot from Nicklas Danielsson, Sudnitsin catches and hangs on.

Puck out of play again, the shoot-in is deflected out, and now the faceoff is inside the zone with :09 left in the penalty.

Now the puck goes out of play and they're taking the faceoff outside with just :12 left in the Lev power play.

Slapper from Azevedo, right on Sudnitsin, who holds on again with :22 left in the penalty.

Now Sudnitsin grabs the puck and hangs on with :47 left in the penalty.

Klepis with another chance on a rush, this time he gets it on net but Sudnitsin kicks it out with the right pad.

One-time slapper from Klepis sails just wide.

Penalty half over, Neftekhimik ices for the second time.

Icing Neftekhimik.

Puck out of play in the Lev zone, faceoff inside.

Sekac tries to skate the puck through the neutral zone but he runs into Nikolai Belov near the Neftekhimik blueline, and both players go down.

Jaakola shoots from the point, Ridderwall deflects it right on Sudnitsin, who covers it again.

Sudnitsin covers the puck in the Neftekhimik zone.

Offside Lev on the pass, faceoff at centre ice.

Now Vehanen covers the puck and we have a faceoff in the Lev zone.

Shot from Vrana, pad save Sudnitsin, and the puck goes to the corner.

Draw won cleanly by Koukal but Kotsmachyov doesn't get much on the one-time shot and Vehanen easily stops and covers it.

Rush for Neftekhimik and Oskar Osala shoots, glove save Vehanen. That's the first time I've seen Osala on the ice since the fight--he went to the dressing room after it.

Novotny shoots and Christensen tries to deflect it, but it goes into the pads of Sudnitsin, who holds on again.

Play stays in the Neftekhimik zone, finally Sudnitsin covers it again.

Michal Repik streaks down the left wing and fires a backhander just wide of the far post.

Shot from the point by Juraj Mikus, pad save Sudnitsin and he covers.

Long wrister from Demagin is caught and held by Vehanen--Lev has killed off both penalties and is back at full strength.

High slapper from Shulakov goes off the glass, and eventually Vehanen covers it with :26 left in the penalty.

Plenty of traffic in front of Vehanen but he manages to get a glove on the loose puck with just :02 left in the first penalty, but they have another to kill off.

Petr Koukal takes a long shot through traffic that hits Vehanen and he holds on with 1:30 left in the penalty.

Yegor Milovzorov takes a rising wrister that Vehanen knocks down.

Offside Lev. The teams are back to 5 on 5.

Long pass to Sergei Demagin but he's watched closely and his long shot is easily stopped by Vehanen.

Offside Lev.

Icing Lev.

Nikolai Belov tries to go high from a sharp angle but there was no room and he hit Vehanen in the shoulder.

Play in the Lev zone and the puck goes into the netting above the glass. Faceoff inside.

Play back the other way and Sudnitsin catches a long shot for the game's first whistle--faceoff in the Neftekhimik zone.

Denis Tolpeko shoots from the left wing, kicked out by Vehanen.

Ryan O'Byrne gets Lev's first shot on goal from the point, stick save Sudnitsin.

Puck into the Lev zone off the opening draw, Dmitri Kotsmachyov backhanded the puck on net and Vehanen got a glove on it.

The national anthems of the Russian Federation and the Czech Republic have been played and the opening faceoff is moments away.

Lev is wearing their red home uniforms with blue and white trim, red NY Rangers-style pants and blue helmets. Neftekhimik is wearing road white with double blue trim, blue pants and white helmets.

Starting Lineups:

Lev Praha: Vehanen (Lukáš) – Oystrick, Němec, Gragnani, Mikuš, Jaakola, O'Bryne, Cingel, Humphries – Novotný, Christensen, Klepiš – Ridderwall, Azevedo, Danielsson – Sekáš, Zacriksson, Thörnberg – Birner, Vrána, Řepík.

HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk: Sudnitsin (Mamedov) – Schitov, Romanov, Belov, Shulakov, Berezin, Kosmachyov, Belyakov, Kulikov – Demagin, Polygalov, Yakimov – Osala, Cibák, Milovzorov – Radivojevič, Koukal, Tolpeko – Y. Alshevsky, Khokhryakov, S. Alshevsky.

Referees: Zakharov, Deyev – Mikhael , Shikhanov.

In the tightly-compacted Eastern Conference, Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk sits in 7th place with 19 points, but they´re just a win away from jumping up into 5th. They started out by winning five of their first seven games, but have since dropped four of five, most recently a forgettable 6-0 shutout loss in Zagreb. Canadian Matt Dalton was in goal that game, so chances are Neftekhimik will come back with Alexander Sudnitsin in Prague.

Neftekhimik is led offensively by Yegor Milovzorov with 10 points and Oskar Osala with 9, while Stanlislav Romanov leads the defence with 5. Probably the most notable name on the roster, though, is veteran Slovakian winger Branko Radivojevič.

Both meetings between the two teams were tied 2-2 at the end of regulation, and both times Neftekhimik emerged victorious. On October 15 in Nizhnekamsk, it was Czech Petr Koukal scoring the shootout winner, while on December 23 in Prague, it was Pyotr Khokhryakov who scored in overtime after Nicklas Danielsson had tied it for Lev with just 10.9 seconds remaining in the third period.

This Lev team knows all about wild finishes, unfortunately they´re coming off one that didn´t go their way in the end. They had leads of 2-1 and 3-2, but gave up a late equaliser and lost 3-2 in overtime to Metallurg Magnitogorsk, conceding 3 power-play goals on the night. The difference between getting 3 points and 1 is enough to drop them from 5th to 8th in the congested Western Conference.

"We can´t think about it too much," said Petr Vrána, whose go-ahead goal with 7:23 to go nearly held up to be the winner. "It happened. We have to look at our mistakes and get ready for the next game."

"We´ll have to go through some video tomorrow and see what went wrong," said defenceman Joki Jaakola , another goal scorer Wednesday, echoing similar sentiments as Vrána. About Wednesday´s game, he said, "It´s gonna be another hard one but I haven´t really thought about it. We´ll just have to put this one behind us and move on."

Welcome. This game starts at 19:00 CEST local time in Prague, 21:00 MSK in Nizhnekamsk and 13:00 EDT.